A photo of the house taken last week:
A photo of the house taken yesterday:
The leaves are changing color rather quickly. And, thanks to some rain and wind, there are a lot more of them on the ground.
That means raking. Lots of it.
I love fall, but it’s messy. We have to clean out the gutters frequently so they don’t get clogged. We have to rake and rake and rake again. Part of the deal with having a lot of deciduous trees to enjoy, and we do, is that the leaves will eventually fall to the ground. The maples are always among the first, along with the black walnut. Then the ash trees, what’s left of them; we’ve lost a lot to disease. The oaks and elms are up in the woods and I’ve noticed their leaves starting to change color. The catalpa will be last. The minute we have a hard frost? Boom. All the leaves will fall. The ground will be littered with those beautiful giant heart-shaped leaves.
I’m spending as much time as I can on the porch because it will soon be too cold and wintry to enjoy our little haven.
Hang in there, impatiens.
What’s it look like in your neck of the woods? Are the leaves changing color? Have they already fallen? Do you live in a part of the country where the changes are subtler? Tell me about your own particular autumn.
Happy Tuesday.
It’s all so beautiful, Claudia. Yes, raking is part of the deal. :-)
Well, I’m not too far away from you, so our fall is looking alot like yours. The sugar maples are turning their beautiful firey colors, my favorite…
Hi Claudia,
Oakville, Ontario, Canada looks pretty much the same! We too have a ton of raking to do every fall but we love our trees so we have to put up with the mess!
Question – Where is your front door? Is that the front of your house, or the side?
S
xo
That’s the side door that leads into the kitchen. The front door is on the porch. We use the side door most of the time.
xo
Thanks, Claudia. It`s such a pretty place!
S
xo
In Texas it’s still pretty warm. Our leaves don’t change until November into December unless we have a cold spell. At least it’s not in the upper 90’s though. Your trees are beautiful.
What changes we get have not really began as it is still so hot here. Hottest summer into fall I can remember.
Hi Claudia,
I’ve been reading your lovely blog for over a year now but it’s the first time I am leaving a comment. Regarding this vibrant season…well, I can relate and I can’t. I was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where autumn is very similar to what you have described, especially all that raking! Love the leaves… the raking- not so much! But, I have been living on the island of Crete, in Greece, for the past 24 years, where the change from summer to fall is much more subtle and the summer just keeps hanging around! Just posted about this the other day! Because autumn-and everything that goes with it- is my favourite season, I prefer the season in Canada, where the colours, the scents and the sounds of autumn are more pronounced and robust. There’s nothing like it and I ache for it every year, raking and all!
Happy autumn!
Poppy
Poppy, thanks so much for introducing yourself to me! I’m off to visit your blog.
Crete sounds heavenly to me!
xo
Claudia
I wish I could say it was cooling down out west but another day of triple digits is in the forecast. Come November the garden will be beautiful with new roses and then the clean up will be in January. There is good and bad in every region I suppose. Patty
Claudia – Amazing how the scenery can change in that short of a time!! Beautiful pictures, but then, your photos are always wonderful. Enjoy that front porch while you can.
Judy
The pictures around your home, and of your home are lovely!! We have giant sycamores in our front yard, and the leaves are falling and leaving their mess!!
We are still very hot here. But I hope this is the last of it. Today is supposed to be 105. Ugh!!!
XO Kris
Claudia,
You are the best! Thanks so much for the wonderful words of encouragement last night :) Fall here is in full swing…..the leaves are falling and changing colors…..and winter is on its way.
blessings,
karianne
Here in the South (Atlanta, GA) the leaves are starting to turn a touch….still not pretty like where you are. We are enjoying some rainy days right now. Sometime in Oct is when we usually have beautiful color here!
hugs, Linda
We’re having a rainy week here – and hoping it ushers in the South Florida fall.
For us that means turning off the a/c – opening up the house to breezes from the patio.
Planting impatiens and begonias, remulching the beds, purging the tropical rain mildew from the pathways, trimming back the summer weary shrubs, the vegetable plants can start up again.
Looking forward to a swelter free sit on my patio and fresh air in the home for the next 6 months!
My parents and sister live in Florida and they feel the same way, Jackie!
Hi, Claudia – that sure is a noteworthy change right in front of your house – and what a nice little porch u have to sit on and watch it (as you rest from the leaf-raking, of course :) )!!! Here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, when I am out walking my dog, I see some leaves that are turning -but mostly the trees have not yet been so kissed ….
Autumn is here, in full force, in Ontario. The weather is cooler and the leaves are dropping. Raking will soon be my full time occupation!
Ours can be hard here in the reclaimed desert, but right now it’s 48° with a high of 80° later. Then it’s cooling down significantly, sugar. Highs only in the 60s (perfect weather for me!) until Sunday when it hits 80°. I love the cold weather. I love the first snow fall of the year and the quietness it brings to the earth. I’m looking forward to it but I do NOT drive in snow. I wait until the roads are clear and snuggle down in a chair with a good book.
We had a catalpa tree in our old house and when a leaf dropped we’d get another tree. Hubs was forever pulling out the small starts as we couldn’t have a tree in that area next to our neighbors garage.
xoxo,
Connie
Yes, those Catalpas love to make babies, Connie.
Claudia, when I saw Poppy’s comment, I went to her site. It’s so well written and the photos are so beautiful that I had to follow her. Thanks for the introduction!
I know, I just went there, too. I can’t wait to explore it further!
Autumn is here, and I can smell it in the air. I just turned around to look out my window to check the leaves. Some of the trees, especially the maples, have just the slightest tinge of change. We usually have our peak toward the end of October.
I have a great yard vacuum in my garage. I wish you were close enough to use it to get up your leaves.
So do I, Beverly!
xo
Claudia
I know how important your porch is to you and it looks like the perfect place to strum the guitar
and take in the memories of moments gone by. Claudia, your home is so lovely, just beautiful, anytime
of the year. As for our California, you know it is just hot here. But promises of 80’s come the weekend…a welcome change.
love ya,
becky
Our leaves here in Wisconsin are at full peak, and absolutely gorgeous! We are hoping to drive to the Mississippi tomorrow and catch the color there! Love this season!! ;)
As you know, southern California can be pretty warm this time of year. It will be in the mid-90s today, and cool off a bit over the next few days, about 10 degrees or so. It’s already 81, and it isn’t even 10 AM. I want to like autumn, but it’s hard. We don’t see a great deal of color here, it is much more subtle, but trees will lose their leaves at some point. We do get the raking part of autumn.
I remember fall in San Diego – very subtle. Luckily our neighbor had some deciduous trees and we could live vicariously through her! Sometimes we’d drive to the mountains to get a dose of fall.
Our weather is similar to yours, Claudia. Some of the sugar maples are already bright orange and yellow, the oak leaves are turning a beautiful dark brown, while many other maples are still green. The dogwoods are a lovely mahogany and the crab apple is nearly naked and keeps dropping small marble-sized apples onto the ground. (Or on my head if I stand in one spot too long!) Until last week our days were all golden sunlight and the nights were crisp and cool — perfect weather for sleeping! But then we had three days of drizzle and damp… so much so that I had to close all the windows. In other words, a typical New England Autumn! (By the way…. I let all the leaves that drop into my garden beds stay there all winter, like a cozy blanket, and then I rake and bag them in late March. The years I raked them away in the Fall I noticed the gardens weren’t nearly as lush the following Spring.)
I do the same thing, Haworth. I used to rake them up, but then I realized what a perfect layer of protection they were for my gardens. So now they stay.
In the PNW, it still is pleasantly warm and the colors are slowly changing. I love the contrast to the fir trees that stay so green. The rains have not started yet and daily my husband and I sit out on our patio for lunch, dinner or both to soak up the wonderful weather because we know it’s going to change soon.
This will be our first autumn in 16 years, as we moved from the AZ desert climate last year.
Beautiful pics and house/yard. Love your porch and I can see why you love spending time out there!
Enjoy your first autumn in a long time, Jan!
I live in Southern California and fall is when our weather gets really warm. We have been in the 80s on the beach this week, which is rare. The difference from summer is that it is dark when I rise and the sun is setting much earlier. We sit on the beach to watch the sunset before dinner now and can eat by candlelight. Fall is my favorite season now as an adult. As a child it was something to get through until my birthday and Christmas.
Hi Claudia – our leaves are changing colour and falling too. I was hoping to drive up to Algonquin Park for some photos before the peak passes but the trees seem to be dropping leaves quickly. We are making plans this weekend to get there (it’s our Thanksgiving here in Canada so a good time for a drive). J
Happy Thanksgiving, Julie!
Autumn her is a bit hinky at 5 am it is cool and autumn is in the air … but by 12 all siigns of it is gone. It is hot and time to jump back in the pool.. The only leaf type problems we have are all the pine needle blowing everywhere in the 10-25 mph winds. I will be happy when autumn sicks around for the whole day.
Autumn is taking it’s time here..It’s going to be 80 the next few days..then 50..That ought to do it!!
Some leaf drop here but not a lot of color change. I end up having to rake pine straw off our grass. I have been making more and more pine straw islands however and that gives me less grass to cut. I seem to have a lot of yard work no matter the season. I need to cut back the roses soon but they have so many blooms I do not want to.
Claudia, I so enjoyed seeing the different photos of the leaves changing and also your porch. The light there is so pretty, and it seems so soft. Loved your description of the different trees and raking leaves. And I love your home. It looks like something from a storybook.
I had thought that fall was upon us the other day. I think that was actually a trick I played on myself. One day, we did have cooler temps, but I sit in the house with the AC cranked up since I was sick. The humidity makes me feel like I’m having a recurrence. So I guess I fooled myself into thinking it was fall in Florida. ;-)
Still there are those subtle changes… the rain trees are in bloom, and we do have leaves falling from one of the trees in our back yard in St. Augustine. I was there the other day, and they were covering the porch. And the china berry tree is dropping berries on the ground. But we are still quite warm. It’s been rainy the last two days, but the storm that was supposed to hit today didn’t.
I had a visit from a fat kitty cat who belongs to a neighbor, and he was wearing his cute fall collar. So he thinks it’s fall. He is the cutest cat ever, a grey tabby with lots of moxie, and they dress him in little crocheted collars which makes him resemble a French clown. He has an orange collar for fall. I hope that doesn’t mean he’s a Gator fan. ;-) Oh, and that reminds me… football has started. A sure sign of fall for some. To alter a phrase from ee cummings, we are in just fall when the little bad kitty visits and his owners call far and wee. Hey, I tried! ;-)
XO,
Sheila
After such a dry and hot summer in Wisconsin, we weren’t sure what to expect for the Fall. It seems that the trees turned to their amazing golds and reds .almost over-night. My husband and I took a drive today up towards the Wisconsin Dells, and the colors were beautiful. There is a haze in the air due to the dust that the farmers create trying to bring in the crops of corn and soybeans that actually made it through this drought.
I read on someone’s blog the other day that we should be thankful that the leaves fall and we don’t have to climb the trees to shake them down. I was thinking of that today when we were washing windows outside and felt as if we were in a golden snowstorm of leaves when the wind blew.
I love your blog, Claudia, and look forward to your posts every day!! Also I am loving your “Favorite Thing” parties!! Thanks for sharing your stories and your beautiful photos!!
What a difference a week makes at your place, Claudia. Since this is my first autumn here in CA, I have no idea what to expect! I hear there will be winds, perhaps rain, and unfortunately fires. I’ve never visited this time of year and look forward to seeing what happens (except for those fires). Autumn was a much more defined season in my childhood in Canada where, like you are doing now, the leaves fell and had to be raked. In Florida they fall in early spring and that in itself was an adjustment in seasonal signals for me after moving there. Every area has it’s own particular beauty for each season, I believe. Ann
Just this week we are starting to see more color. It seemed to happen overnight. I want to enjoy the next few weeks of amazing colors by being outside as much as I can. I hate to rake though, and we will do a lot of mulching with the lawnmower. Your home is so charming Claudia! It is such a sweet country cottage! I would love to have a front porch like yours! Enjoy! ~Hugs, Patti
Your house is so cute, I just love it. Out here in So Cal, a little northwest of dntn L.A. we are still baking in triple digits. It’s been a pretty hot summer since June. We’re all ready for it to be over. Then of course comes October with the Santa Susana winds and possibility of fires, which for us is scary as I live in the hills and sometimes we’ve had to evacuate. The leaves are falling and it’s just brown here. I remember growing up in Michigan and being able to Trick or Treat around wonderful Lake Fenton with friends on crisp cool nights with the crunching of leaves under our feet. I do miss those Michigan falls and color.
Fall..amazing isn’t it? In Nebraska we are seeing some beautiful colors. It seems that with the heat this summer though that leaves would like to fall instead of turning all the gorgeous colors they usually do…pretty nonetheless.
love the pics you posted…how fun. I will have to try that-taking a picture every couple days- because the moment it freezes hard, it will be raining those leaves and they will be gone. My hubby things we should WAIT to rake because more leaves are just gonna fall LOL-needless to say our leaves rarely get raked as they should!